Saul Garlick explained his experiences with Think Impact and what he has learned about development in rural communities through this work. The most important lesson is to not judge, and to assume that you know nothing. There must be a prolonged time of exposure before you can hope to have impact and you must let the people take the credit for their own future. Also, in order to truly understand a community you must come to understand the cultural norms that run deeply, such as food, language, occupation, gender and entertainment. Furthermore, political hierarchies greatly affect the running of a community and you cannot hope to enact any kind of social change unless you gain the support and permission of the levels of government within the community.